


They Waited So Long For This

by stellacadente



Series: Fictober 2018 [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Dad!Quinn, F/M, New Zakuul, Post-KotET, They help create a new society, Zakuul, and they live happily ever after, there's one sad chapter tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 21:49:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16563758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacadente/pseuds/stellacadente
Summary: Fictober 2018 on Tumblr meant 31 new stories. They fell into a couple of related subjects, so I’m grouping them together and posting them as their own series.I’ve reordered them to be as close to chronological order as possible, not in the order they appeared during the month.These stories take place on New Zakuul, which Xhareen, Quinn and their families help to rebuild after the defeat of Valkorion.





	1. I've Waited So Long For This

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning for mention of difficult birth.

_**New Zakuul, a year after Valkorion is defeated** _

 

Kayda Quinn knew before she even opened the doors to the waiting room that her brother would be pacing. She knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate, given all that was going on in the surgical suite down the hall. The datapad she’d given him would be sitting on the end table, unread.

At least she was bringing him good news: His daughter had arrived, and she was fine. And he knew what was coming next, that Xhareen, his wife, would be undergoing surgery to fix her hips, damaged by years of Force leaping and strained by the pregnancy.

There was no reason to believe anything other than the best outcome for everyone. But her brother, Malavai, was a worrier. And this day had been so long coming.

He and Xhareen had split up over the loss of their first child, a tragedy of both epic and very intimate proportions. They found a way to get back together, as Kayda always knew they would, and then the Zakuul invasion split them up for six years.

Now, though, they were the most celebrated couple of New Zakuul and this child represented the faith that all the newcomers – from the Republic, from the Empire, from the unaligned worlds – had that a Zakuul without an emperor, without a dynasty, was a valid concept.

Xhareen had chosen to have her surgical birth and the reparative surgery done in the main military hospital on the outskirts of the Spire district, rather than a private facility that had opened closer to the capital’s heart. It was quieter, and had a large enough surgical suite to accompany the three attending surgeons, plus two support droids, plus an audience consisting Kayda and her mother – both surgeons themselves – and Dr. Lokin, the one who had diagnosed her impending hip failure and ordered her to bedrest five weeks ago.

Malavai managed to keep an unexpected sense of calm during her confinement and Xhareen took it well, considering. But Kayda could see her brother’s façade of calm tearing itself down when Dr. Lokin announced last night that Xhareen was in labor and that the time had come.

He spun around immediately when he heard the doors swish open. He attempted a smile when he saw the broad one on his sister’s face but then his lips began to quiver.

“It’s time, Mal. Come on back and meet your daughter.”

He didn’t move.

Kayda came and gently led him by the arm. He mumbled, “thank you, thank you” several times.

Though this was considered a public hospital, the administrator had insisted on putting Xhareen in a private wing. So there wasn’t a nursery ward here, full of squalling babies, just a small room with well-appointed chairs and a couch and just one squalling baby in a nurse’s arms.

The nurse handed the child to Kayda and left.

Figuring it was safer if he sat down first, Kayda pointed to a chair and then handed the squirming, bundled newborn to her brother. Baby Samheen quieted down immediately in her father’s arms. He held her like a professional nurse or experienced parent; Kayda assumed he had found some way to practice and she smiled.

Tears poured down both of their cheeks as he gave her a thorough inspection.

“Fingers, toes, knees … Her skin is as pink as it is brown, and her eyes are a … dear stars, I hadn’t even thought about her eyes.” His own eyes began to leak even more, even though he was smiling more than Kayda had seen him in … ever, perhaps?

“Mal, you saw the scans. You knew she would have eyes.”

It hadn’t been guaranteed; many mixed Miraluka children did not have them, although eyes did tend to dominate when one parent was human. They’d know in a year or so if she had Force sight as well.

But now, none of that mattered. “I know they’re going to change color, but right now, they’re like the monsoon clouds right before the end of the season,” he said.

“If you tell me the scientific and Sith names for those clouds at this moment, I will punch you,” Kayda warned him.

He ignored her, and spoke to Samheen: “Don’t worry, my girl. I will teach you all about your father’s home world. We’ll hire you a Sith tutor and you can drive your auntie mad.”

He rocked her a little more and she fell back asleep.

“Kayda, can you do me a favor?”

“Yes, I’ll go check on Xhareen. They expected the second surgery to last about an hour. I’m assuming you’ll want to do the feeding, since it will be a few hours more before Xhareen can.”

He nodded. “Sure, sure,” he said.

Kayda rose. “I’ll tell Mother she can come now if she wants.”

“Kayda, give me a few more minutes alone, can you?” he pleaded. “I’ve waited so long for this … this most perfect moment.”

“I’ll send Mother back in five with an update,” she said as she left the room.

Kayda found she was still crying as she walked down the hallway toward the operating suite. She’d been a wreck when her first child was born but somehow, she realized she’d just witnessed an even more profound miracle.

Maybe, just maybe, her brother could really be happy now.


	2. At Least It Can't Get Any Worse, Right?

The guests were coming in less than an hour. Xhareen managed to get the whole family together – hers, and Quinn’s, and a few friends – in one place at one time for a large meal. She’d been trying for two weeks. That it turned out to be tonight was doubly fortuitous.

Trouble was, she couldn’t find the children.

Toovee was facing a corner in the hallway by their bedrooms, telling the wall how to properly prepare a proper cup of caff. They had sliced Toovee for the third time in two months – not good, given that Samheen was 6 and Darvis, her shadow and minion when it came to getting into trouble, was only 4. Good thing Vette would be here soon; she’d have to do a thorough reprogramming to keep her poor relic droid relevant in her new life.

They were normally good children, but something … maybe the transit of Zakuul’s moons … caused them to periodically lose their shit. Malavai studied text after text and consulted a dozen medical specialists, hoping that perhaps there was some physical cause that could be remedied. Xhareen remembered her own childhood: At least her children weren’t angry like she had been. 

They just periodically lost their shit.

With no medical culprit, Malavai and Xhareen tried everything else they could think of: more discipline, less discipline, more lessons, fewer lessons, more physical exercise in hopes of making them too tired for mischief.

Xhareen thought it was probably time to hire an organic nanny, and maybe acquire a Zakuulan nanny droid, too.

It was far too quiet. Dreadfully quiet. Malavai would be home any minute now. Maybe they were lying in wait for Daddy?

That was when the crashing began. A horrific clanging and clattering that seemed to last for an hour.

Had to be the dining room. What had happened? An attack? Had Toovee finally blown his restraining bolt?

She was in the dining room two seconds before Malavai. They surveyed the damage together.

“MUMMY! DADDY! SAMHEEN DID IT!” Darvis said before either of them could take a breath. “IT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR!”

Xhareen attempted to speak but Malavai beat her to it.

“Samheen, what do you have to say for yourself?”

She began to bawl.

Xhareen turned to Darvis. He might worship his older sister, but he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to snitch his way out of this.

“She was trying to do a trick with the Force,” he said.

“You dared me, you little brat,” the guilty party countered, sobbing.

“I don’t even know what dared me is!” Darvis protested.

“Samheen, we have a lot of company coming in a few minutes. What are we supposed to feed them?” Malavai said, trying to be as calm and rational as possible.

“Let me guess,” Xhareen said. “You thought the tablecloth was ugly. You were going to take it off the table without moving the dishes.”

Samheen resumed bawling. Hopefully, Toovee’s programming was intact enough that he could help her and her daughter clean this up. Even with her Force powers, Samheen had made a mess a 6 year old could not fix on her own.

“It’s still warm out. We can eat on the patio. I can have the lights on, the table washed and the bug screen up in five minutes. Darvis, you will assist. We can order some food to be delivered,” Malavai said, as he pointed to Samheen to begin salvaging the dishware that wasn’t obliterated. “And hey, at least it can’t get any worse, right?”

Xhareen sighed. Maybe tonight wasn’t a good night to tell everyone she was pregnant again.


	3. Do We Really Have To Do This Again?

“You sure you’re up for this?” Malavai said as he kissed Xhareen on the forehead.

“You’re acting like I’m heading off to battle.”

He smiled. “I’m sure you’ve fought many battles less difficult than this.”

He wasn’t wrong. Xhareen had made her daughter help clean up last night’s disaster in the dining room before giving the rest of the task to Toovee and the housekeeper droids, but that was not the only discipline the situation required.

Samheen joined her mother on the patio and they walked to the back garden. Even at 6 years old, she knew this was not going to be a pleasant after-breakfast stroll.

“Mummy, I’m so, so sorry for what I did. I won’t ever do it again. Even if Darvis tries to …”

Xhareen waved her hand but said nothing. Samheen stopped talking; she started to breathe rapidly as if spooling up her engines to start crying.

When her lips started to quiver, Xhareen still said nothing.

When they got to the back garden – the family’s private garden, surrounded by high hedges and inaccessible from anywhere except through the main house – they were greeted by a rope about a half meter off the ground, stretched between two poles. A row of foam guarding lined each side of the line.

The confusion on her daughter’s face was worth a few broken plates and some wasted food.

“This is your punishment for last night, Sami.”

Samheen said nothing.

“I’m not going to introduce you to this exercise like my teacher did. But we are going to stay out here and you will practice until you can walk across that rope without falling. I won’t even blindfold you. At least, not today.”

Just like Xhareen discovered decades earlier, it was not an easy task. Samheen tried gamely to make her way across, but could not stay balanced. She did learn, after several cushioned falls, to land on her feet with the assistance of the Force.

After a half dozen tries, she sat on the foam and refused to get up. “Do we really have to do this again? I can’t do it.”

Xhareen came and sat down next to her.

“Sami, why do you suppose I decided upon this as your punishment? Should I have done what your father suggested, making you and Darvis clean up the mess all by yourselves? Or sent everyone home and said, ‘Sorry, no dinner tonight! Samheen was showing off and ruined it’?”

She shook her head. “Everyone would have been mad at me, not just you and Daddy.”

“Sami, I wasn’t mad at you. I was disappointed. So was your father. You treat the Force like a toy, and that’s dangerous. You should be using your skills to set the table, not destroy it. You should use your brains to fix Toovee, not do cruel things to him.”

The tears that came now were sincere. “I’m sorry. I like Toovee. He tells stupid jokes.”

That bit of programming had been Vette’s idea of a housewarming gift years ago. She thought it would annoy Malavai, but he laughed at the jokes more than anyone.

“Are you going to torment poor Toovee anymore?”

She shook her head more vigorously this time, her raven curls bouncing across her face.

“Shall we get back up on that rope?”

“OK, Mummy, but Darvis really did dare me to try to pull the cloth. What’s his punishment going to be?”

“Your brother is, at this very moment, getting a stern lecture from your father about respecting the Force. When he’s old enough, he’ll be out here, too. We’d rather not have two children trying to one up each other and ruining every family meal. And Toovee is more than a droid to me. He is my old friend.”

“Darvis is going to be as strong as me, isn’t he,” Sami said, not a question at all.

“Very likely.”

Xhareen stood up and helped her daughter get up, too. She placed her on the rope, then held her hand until she got the proper balance and walked by her side as she made it more than halfway before jumping off.

“Sami, I was older when my master made me do this same exercise. Although I had to do it without my visor, just using the Force. What do you suppose I’m trying to teach you?”

“To respect the Force?”

“Yes, that, but something else, and this is what my master said: ‘Go forward. Do not stray. Do not let your thoughts stray.’ She was teaching me how to focus, and that is something you sorely need.”

Samheen stepped up on the rope and, keeping her arms balanced, kept herself steady enough to get up without help.

“One foot after the other. Do not stray.”

She made it to the end but, not having an exit plan, fell onto the foam in a very ungracious dismount.

That was good enough for Day 1.

“Mummy, are you going to have any more babies?” Samheen asked as they headed back into the house. They’d been out here for two hours. Xhareen was feeling a bit nauseated, and hoped a snack would help her keep her breakfast down, but she had something else to do first.

“I tell you what. Let’s go in and you and Darvis and Daddy and I will have a little talk, OK?”

Sami gave her a hug. “OK. We can try this again tomorrow, right? I want to do it.”

Xhareen smiled. Maybe they’d survive a third child yet.


	4. You Know This. You Know This To Be True.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: Far future end of life scene for a major character

 

**_In the far future, Zakuul and Odessen_ **

 

Senator Koth Vortena had put off this obligation for too long. Now, he had no choice.

The call to Odessen had come from none other than Arcann himself. “It really is time, this time,” he had said. Koth could tell he was at the old hospital, the first to be built on the remains of the former Alliance base.

His old friend, Xhareen, was in the background, but she said nothing. She had all but retired from public life, hastened by the death last year of her youngest child. Her husband was finishing up his final term as commandant of the Zakuul Prime military academy and he, too, would join her in planned obsolescence and extended grief.

The shuttle touched down near the Gravestone museum. Koth’s heart always soared when he saw her; mothballed, sure, her engines long since dismantled per the treaties he himself helped negotiate with the Republic and the Sith. But still as beautiful as the day he laid eyes on her.

You never forget your first love, he always told himself when he saw her.

An air tram took him to the hospital’s entrance. An honor guard met him there.

“Welcome, Senator Vortena,” came a familiar voice.

It was Lana Beniko, only barely showing the years that separated them from their glory days, trying to end the very person who was to greet them next. She had been granted the title of “Governor of Odessen,” overseeing the 100,000 residents given permission to live on the founding world that made New Zakuul possible.

He entered the lobby of the hospital from a side wing, followed as he always was by two armed guards. His suggestion. Made people feel better that the former tyrant who had wanted them all dead was now living among them.

The men shook hands. “Thank you for coming, Senator,” Arcann said, pointing back down the hallway he’d emerged from. “Her room is this way.”

“Please come see me before you leave, Koth,” Lana said, before heading back out of the hospital.

They walked around the curved hallway. For some reason, this site inspired a second group of architects to build in the round as well.

The room – small, modestly appointed, no different from any other – was guarded by two Zakuul Knights. Xhareen’s contingent, no doubt.

They entered into the anteroom, and Arcann stopped Koth and whispered, “She really does want to apologize. She’s trying to make her peace.”

He scoffed. “She had decades to do that. But she just disappeared into the mountains here with you.”

“I cannot believe you find it easier to forgive me than to forgive my mother,” Arcann said. “She never realized you still held a grudge. She may have had other things on her mind.”

“For 40 years?”

Arcann would not be deterred. “She always supported you, Koth. You know this. You know this to be true.”

“Always? Tell that to Kiva, who died while we were on the run.”

A soft, deep growl came from the other room. “I have many deaths on my hands, Deserter.”

Senya’s eyes fluttered open as the two men rushed to her side. Xhareen was holding her hand on the other side of the medical bed.

“You really do care, don’t you, Koth?” she said, with a cough and a smile.

“I’ve been led to believe this is a monumental event, Senya. You apologizing and all.”

She gestured and Xhareen pressed a button so the bed would elevate her head. “Koth Vortena, I apologize for tormenting you for making the correct moral decision, even though it did break the law.”

He nodded and pressed his lips together. “Why now? I mean, besides the obvious.”

Xhareen drew in a sharp breath, but said nothing. Koth knew she’d have some choice words for him later, though.

“Because it is obvious, Koth. I’m old, I’m sick, and my time is done,” she said, between coughs. “My lineage has ended. That’s a burden I must bear. But Koth, I will not pass into the Force without your forgiveness.”

“Bossy as always, aren’t you, Senya.”

She smiled. “Would you have it any other way?”

“I guess not. I forgive you, Senya. I won’t forget the times you helped the Alliance, or for keeping your word not to interfere when we set up the new government.”

She reached for his hand. He hesitated, but then took hers into both of his.

“Still fixing spaceships? Your hands are quite rough for a politician,” she said.

“It’s what I do,” he replied.

“That, and give long-winded speeches,” Xhareen interjected. “Whatever happened to your three-minute rule?”

They all laughed. Even though Arcann and Senya had not left Odessen since his defeat so long ago, they had kept abreast of the developments as Zakuul broke the chains Valkorion had wrapped it in.

Senya began to cough again, and Arcann touched Koth’s arm, signaling it was time to go.

“Senya, I know you don’t have much time, so I’m touched you took this time for me. Go in peace,” Koth said.

“Keep my home safe, politician. That’s all I ask.”

As he arrived back at the Spire, his comm buzzed. It was Xhareen.

“She’s gone. Senya’s gone.”

Not unexpected, but he felt something irritating his eyes. “Will there be some kind of ceremony? Because I’ll come back for that.”

“Arcann said no. I don’t like it, but I’ll respect his wishes,” she said. “I think maybe I can make a speech in her honor tomorrow, though. It’s time I confronted my grief. All of it.”

Koth nodded. “Just keep it to three minutes, Outlander.”

She saluted him and signed off.

Maybe he’d say a few words of his own.


End file.
